2016 Andretta Riserva Brunello di Montalcino 750 ml

The 2016 Brunello di Montalcino vintage is a must-collect for ALL wine lovers.

Wine Advocate rated the vintage 98—their best rating of all time. Vinous wondered aloud if the vintage was indeed perfect. James Suckling—one of the world’s foremost experts on Brunello di Montalcino—called it a contender for the greatest vintage ever, and in that spectacular season, Andretta fashioned an incredible Riserva. 

We’re fairly certain Andretta is the only wine we’ve ever sold that’s made by a philosophy teacher and a space engineer. In 1994, Rosalba Vitanza took a break from Hegel and Kant for a romantic weekend escape to Montalcino with her husband, Guido Andretta, an aerospace consultant. They fell in love with the area, and ended up buying a beautiful property there that included four acres of vines. She decided to use the grapes from those vines to make wine for family and friends—humble beginnings that ultimately led to the creation of her own winery, Tenuta Vitanza.

Guido had long been bugging his wife to make his favorite style of Brunello: muscular and rich, with more French-oak aging. As a gift for their 10th anniversary, she launched Andretta, a new label that would specialize in that style. The winery’s Brunello di Montalcino Riserva hails from their Vigna Il Lupo (Wolf Vineyards) property, located in the warm Castelnuovo dell’Abate subzone. 

In 2016, they had a dream vintage to work with: Spring rainfall in Montalcino and a warm, dry summer made for a near-perfect growing season. Stark diurnal temperature shifts kept a balance between fruit and acid, allowing the late-maturing Sangiovese to ripen slowly, making each grape a tiny little gold mine. The spoils are in the glass.